RE: Cigarettes: The worlds first social network.
I found this post quite enlightening, and daring to counter the politically correctness of hammering smoking and smokers. I am a regular smoker, yet I am away of the shadow (the risk of dying from it) that hangs over all smokers heads. So I did make some attempts, the longest being a year.
I remember, during that year, I was still employee of a big company. I would still go out of the building for this cigarette break without a cigarette, because of the social interactions. At the time, 5 years ago, social media was not an addiction for all, but it was starting.
Today, I am appalled by what I see when riding a train. As I refused to be connected all the time (I have a non-internet smartphone that I use only as... a phone, nothing more ), I spot in the train someone unconnected too, and if I have a good feeling about the person, approach him or her. It creates a kind of a new circle. The unconnected!
I think the repercussions of the social media drug will be incredibly evident 10 years from now, not to say that the madness of the whole thing isn't abundant as all hell as it is